And was the holy Lamb of God, On Englands pleasant pastures seen!- And did those feet, William Blake

mandag 2. mars 2015

Debating Jews and Pagans - Rhetorical prowess as Imitatio Christi

This spring I’m teaching a course on texts from
the medieval cult of saints. I’ve designed the course myself, which has allowed
me complete freedom in the selection of texts for the syllabus, and through this
course I aim to acquaint my students with the variety of medieval literature,
and the tropes of medieval hagiography. The most important of these tropes is
the omnipresent imitatio Christi, the
various ways in which the saint emulated the life and teachings of Christ. This
is an old trope that had its origin already in Luke’s account of the martyrdom
of Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles, and it was a compulsory feature in
every hagiographical account – although it was rendered in various ways.

These first weeks we have lingered in the early centuries of Christian
literature, and we have spent a lot of time on early virgin martyrs such as
Agatha, Lucy and of course Catherine of Alexandria. In class I have challenged
the students to identify the various forms of imitato Christi, and I’ve been very pleased with how quickly the students
have adapted to this way of analysing texts. However, I recently became aware
of one form of imitatio Christi which
I had overlooked, and perhaps as expiation for this negligence, I intend to talk
a bit about it here.

I realised my omission when I came across an illumination from a French book of
hours. The illumination was tweeted
by Professor Johan Oosterman,
and, as seen below, it depicts Christ disputing with the elders in the temple.

The illumination presents a story told to us in
the Gospel of Luke 2:41-52, where Joseph and Mary lose track of their child during
a visit to Jerusalem, and find him in the temple (NIV):After three days they found him in the
temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them
questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his
understanding and his answers (Luke 2:46-47). This anecdote serves to
illustrate the superiority of Christ’s teaching over the misguided teachings of
the Jewish elders, and this is a recurring topic in the Gospels, perhaps most
poignantly expressed in Matthew 7:28-29 (NIV): When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at
his teaching,because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their
teachers of the law.

Christ disputing MS Royal 2 B VII, English psalter, between 1310 and 1320Courtesy of British Library

To conquer those of a different faith through
debate is a recurring topic in hagiography, and appears already in the Acts of
the Apostles. From Acts 6:8-7:53 we are told how Stephen championed
Christianity before the Jewish council after he had been turned in by a group
of Jews. The episode is a conglomerate of Christ disputing with the elders in
the temple and Christ before the Jewish Sanhedrin,
the council, as recounted in the passion story. In this way, Stephen’s imitation Christi is twofold, and his
imitation reaches a third and ultimate point in his martyrdom. This is not to
say that the episode is fictitious or that it is doctored by Luke to correspond
to the life of Christ, but to a medieval reader of hagiography, it is very
likely that this amalgamation would have been evident. Stephen’s debate is also
the centre point of Jacobus de Voragine’s account of him in Legenda Aurea.

Another early Christian account of a debate between
a saint and representatives of a different faith is found in Athanasius’ Life of Antony (mid-fourth-century), the
first hagiography of Antony of Egypt, an account which was also widely
disseminated in the Latin world thanks to Evagrius’ translation. In chapter 72
of Evagrius’ translation and onwards through chapter 80, Antony’s rhetorical
prowess is demonstrated through various monologues against pagan philosophers
who sought him out in his desert lodgings. The account opens with the following
comment: “[Antony] was also remarkably wise: considering that he had no
education it was amazing how very clever and shrewd he was” (White 1998: 53). Antony’s
uneducated thwarting of pagan philosophy is a logical result of the promise of
Christ found in Matthew 10:19-20, where it is stated that during persecutions
the Holy Ghost will speak through the persecuted, and it is this divine aid
that allows Antony to render the pagans “struck with wonder and amazement”
(White 1998:59).

The debate against non-Christian is also an
important feature of the legend of Pope Sylvester. Sylvester is most famous for
his baptism of Constantine after the emperor had been cured of leprosy, and for
his battle against a dragon deep in the recesses beneath Rome.
In the account of his life in Legenda
Aurea, however, the major feature is his debate against the Jews, a debate
that brings about the conversion of Helena, Constantine’s mother.
The debate is arranged as a duel, where the Christian doctors are set to debate
with 161 of the most learned men of the Jews” (Jacobus de Voragine 2012: 65)
under the auspices of pagan judges, and if one debater fails to counter the
arguments of the other, he must step down and leave the scene for another on
his team. Sylvester is the first Christian contender, and in due course he
conquers the twelve most brilliant Jews – presumably a representative for each
of the twelve Jewish tribes. The contest ends not with rhetorical defeat, but
in a stand-down of miracles, in which Sylvester brings a bull back to life,
which the Jewish master Zambri had caused to fall dead to the ground, allegedly
by whispering the true name of God into its ear.

The most famous of these debaters of the faith
is of course Catherine of Alexandria. The story of the young Christian girl
debating fifty great pagan philosophers was well-known throughout the entire
Middle Ages, and her life was translated into several European vernaculars,
including Anglo-Norman and Middle Welsh. Catherine is often depicted with a
book to symbolise her wisdom, sometimes together with the instruments of her
passion, such as the big wheel or the sword that ultimately killed her. The
most expansive account of this story with which I am familiar is not the Legenda Aurea, where Jacobus’ chief
interest seems to be an orderly and summarily categorisation of Catherine’s
virtues and knowledge. A fuller rendition of Catherine’s contest can be found
in the Life of St. Catherine by
Clemence of Barking, written in the mid-twelfth century. Clemence’s portrayal
of Catherine’s debate is an evocative and emotive, and often contains brief
digressions and expositions on truth and folly. The pagan philosophers are
depicted as arrogant and jealous, being foolish for trusting more in their
philosophy than the pure faith of Catherine.

Katherine and the instruments of her passionMS Yates Thompson 3, French book of hours, Roman Use, c.1440-c.1450Courtesy of British Library

The story begins with Catherine defying
Maxentius of Alexandria’s persecution of Christians, imploring him to cease the
sacrifices to the pagan gods. Maxentius the tyrant starts debating with her,
but finds himself at a loss for words and decides to bring in the fifty finest
philosophers of pagandom, who will be debating against Catherine. At the onset
of the debate, a self-appointed spokesman for the group rises to his feet, and
before he starts speaking he is psychologically dissected by Clemence, who –
notwithstanding the theological commonplaces against philosophy – shows a keen
discernment in her portrayal of the human mind. After a short exposition of the
nature of arrogant men, Clemence lets the philosopher exclaim sarcastically:

Emperor, I am utterly astonished that you
have taken such wretchedadvice and promised
us such a great reward for vanquishing a woman skilled in debate. We have
travelled far and it was well worth it on her account! How gloriously our names
will be remembered after such a victory! If one wretched clerk had defeated her,
that would have been quite enough effort expended, and yet on her account the
finest clerks on earth are gathered here! Philosophers and grammarians,
especially rhetoricians and good dialecticians, have come here for a truly
important matter. She will certainly be able to oppose them, to lay out her
arguments and demolish theirs! Whoever she is, summon her, and we shall make
her concede and confess that she has never seen or heard men as wise as those
she has found here.
- Clemence of Barking, Life of Catherine (translated by Jocelyn Wogan-Browne),
1996: 10

The debate then ensues and Catherine emerges
victorious, causing the tyrant Maxentius to exclaim: “Lords, what has happened
to you? Have you all lost your wits? Why are you struck dumb and dismayed on
account of a woman?” (Wogan-Browne 1996: 19). Catherine’s rhetorical prowess
also converts a number of the philosophers, and leaves Maxentius with no other alternative
than to sentence Catherine to her death. Then we are told the famous passion
story, where the wheel on which she is about to be racked is broken by divine
intervention, and where she is ultimately beheaded.

The examples above are just a handful of cases
where the saint’s imitatio Christi
takes the form of the theological debate against non-Christians. On a minor
scale, this feature can be found in most accounts where the saint is brought
before a pagan king, as often was the case in the stories of the early martyrs,
but the martyrdoms mentioned above have the rhetorical contest as one of the
primary forms of imitatio Christi.
The topos grew out of a climate in which Christians saw themselves attacked by
the intellectual establishment comprised of grammarians and pagans well-versed
in the works of Greek and Roman philosophers. Even after Christianity had
become the intellectual and spiritual establishment, the topos continued to
attract the minds of the faithful, and that the contest between philosophy and
spiritualism never entirely went out of fashion can be seen in the famous case
of Abelard and Bernard of Clairvaux.

Om meg

Norwegian medievalist, bibliophile, lover of art, music and food. This blog is a mixture of things personal and scholarly and it serves as a venue for me to share things I find interesting with likeminded people.